Costra biológica del suelo y su efecto en la germinación y establecimiento de dos especies perennes forrajeras del NE patagónico: consideraciones para la restauración ecológica

Abstract

Biological soil crust (BSC) plays an important role in numerous functional aspects of arid and semi-arid ecosystems. Particularly, it plays a decisive role in offering suitable microsites for establishment and development of vascular plant species. BSC would be important to assist the ecological restoration of land degraded by use and increase the development of native communities with ecological value. The objective of this work was to examine the emergence and establishment of seedlings of Pappophorum caespitosum and Nassella longiglumis, two native grass species, in elation to the presence of BSC and water availability. The results obtained allow us to observe that the differences in the emergence and establishment of the herbaceous species studied were related with the availability of water and not with the coverage of BSC. In order to carry out ecological restoration works that include CBS and native forage species, aspects related to precipitation and temperature regimes should be taken into account. The results obtained do not allow us to state whether CBS has positive or negative effect on the establishment of seedlings of these species, but they do allow us to know their behavior under different soil water conditions